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Day 2 - My first MiRL

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

I survived my first night in London. Whew. I woke up around 6 a.m. after a long, much-needed sleep. The bed was a tad bit uncomfortable but still slept the whole night through. My body has adapted amazing well to the change in time. Feeling a bit more confident today although still unsure. At least I know where the tube station is. Headed downstairs (yes, all 5 flights...) for my first real English breakfast. Um...yeah. No. The orange juice they served tasted like Tang which would have been fine if I was expecting it but I was thinking of real OJ. No biggie. I didn't like the eggs - I can't really describe what they did to them (they were fried) but they were certainly not yummy. More rubbery than anything. I skipped the bacon as I already knew it would be more like back bacon than standard North American bacon. The beans? Delicious as was the toast. My tummy though refused to cooperate when it came to the eggs. I just couldn't do it. Today is scheduled to be a busy day. I'm planning on starting off with a walking tour about "Royal London" and then meeting up with my blog buddy Milla.

Headed off to the tube station and came back up to the street at Green Park. I had about half an hour before the walking tour was scheduled to start so I wandered around the block. My knee was a little bit sore from all the stairs I had tackled the afternoon before (Tufnell Park Station = 110 steps...) so I was a bit wary about being able to keep up with the tour group. As I rounded the corner back at the tube station, I noticed a big tour bus that was about to take off. After a quick chat with the ticket man, I decided to cough up the money and spend the next couple of hours on the bus, seeing what London had to offer. The tour company was The Big Bus Company and I would definately recommend it. It seems a bit expensive at £24 per adult but the tour was just over two hours long, includes all the major stops in central London and includes a tour guide. If you're lucky, you'll have one that fills your time on the open top, double decker bus with colourful stories about lesser known sites that will have you giggling and wanting to learn more. I didn't take many pictures while on the tour as we were constantly moving but I did manage to capture a copy of this fabulous lion located at one end of Westminster bridge. Doesn't he look fierce? Rooooooar!

After the tour, I finally had my first Meeting in Real Life (MiRL) with the fabulous Ms. Milla. We met up outside of Camden Station just after 1ish - what a crazy, busy area of town. Milla is funny, charming, and even prettier in person than she looks in her photos. Here we are outside of the Freemason's Hall in what I think is the Strand (?) area of London. We wandered around St. Paul's (which I cannot see from my B&B as I had thought), ate some heavenly creation called a Jaffe Cake and chatted like old friends who hadn't seen each other in a while. From there it was across the Millenium or "wobbly" bridge, along the South Bank to the Globe, back across another bridge and then home. Doesn't sound like a lot does it? Maybe not but we were walking around for about 4 or 5 hours. Wicked. I won't get into much more detail as Milla did a fantastic job writing about it last week. I had a fantastic time with her and even though I wanted to cut off my leg at the knee by the time I crawled up the B&B stairs later that night, I would gladly do it all over again (and no, my dear Milla, it was not your fault - I was the stupid one who took the Tufnell Park station stairs despite seeing the lift...).

Managed to right up a few post cards before heading off to bed. All this fresh air and walking...how on earth am I going to survive over a week of this? Eeeeep!

About Me

I'm Karen, a 40' something single Canuck gal who loves funky socks, football, reading, Coca-Cola, warm cat snuggles, and french fry sandwiches on white bread. I'd also like to take over the world but I just don't have the will power.